Digby Morgan was delighted to play host recently to some of the country’s leading HR lights at an exclusive dinner at that perennial West End favourite, One Aldwych. The highlight of the evening was a short, pre-dinner presentation from the globally acknowledged authority on management practices and the people implications of strategy, Dr Lynda Gratton.

Almost 50 guests attended the dinner including some of the country's most senior HR professionals from a range of blue-chip organisations such as Barclays, ICI, Prudential, WPP, Serco, Nomura, Kleinwort Benson, BP, Deutsche Bank and the London Stock Exchange.

Following the champagne reception, Dr Lynda Gratton gave guests a fascinating insight into ‘Hot Spots’ and why some teams, workplaces and organisations buzz with energy - and others don't (www.hotspotmovement.com).

Lynda defined the Hot Spot as a moment when people are working together in exceptionally creative and collaborative ways. How they occur when the energy within and between people flares and when the mundanity of everyday activities is set aside for engaged work that is exciting and challenging. It is at these times, she explained, that ideas become contagious and new possibilities appear.

Digby Morgan’s CEO, John Maxted, spoke for everyone present when he thanked Lynda for her illuminating presentation and described the evening as one of the highlights of the HR year to date.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF HOT SPOTS
By Lynda Gratton

A Hot Spot is a moment when people are working together in exceptionally creative and collaborative ways. Hot Spots occur when the energy within and between people flares — when the mundanity of everyday activities is set aside for engaged work that is exciting and challenging. It is at these times that ideas become contagious and new possibilities appear.

A Hot Spot flares through the spontaneous combustion of three elements and the multiplier effect of a fourth:

1. A Cooperative Mindset

The innovative capacity of Hot Spots arises from the intelligence, insights, and wisdom of people working together. The energy contained in a Hot Spot is essentially a combination of their individual energy with the addition of the relational energy generated between them. In Hot Spots, value is created in the
space between people when people come together. As a consequence, the quality and extent of these relationships is crucial to the emergence of Hot Spots, and it is a cooperative mindset that is the foundation of these high-quality relationships.

Hot Spots arise because people are excited, willing and able to cooperate with each other. It is these exciting, skilful cooperative relationships that fuel the exchange of knowledge and insights that ignite a Hot Spot and create innovation.

2. Boundary Spanning

Within Hot Spots exciting and skilful cooperative relationships thrive, built on the three combined aspects of human capital. These relationships differ in their depth and extent. Importantly, the extent and depth of relationships within Hot Spots can have different effects on the business value created within Hot Spots.
With regard to the depth of relationships, some relationships are strong and have been in place for many years. Other relationships are more of an association or an acquaintance - with people who are known but not known well.

The extent of boundary spanning in the relationships differs within Hot Spots. Some relationships are within the group. Other relationships are with people outside the group, in other functions, or even in other companies. In this case, boundary spanning is high as these networks of relationships cross team, function, and company boundaries.

3. Igniting Purpose

If Hot Spots emerge as a result of the relationship between relative strangers with different mindsets, why do they choose to cooperate? This is the alchemy of the Hot Spot. To ignite the energy latent within these relationships, we found the third element - the igniting purpose - something that people find exciting and interesting and worth engaging with. When this igniting purpose occurs, people flock to it - they want to be part of it. The igniting purpose can take a number of forms:

Igniting questions
There are occasions when energy is released through the imagination of people being propelled to the future by an igniting question. This is a question that is so exciting and stimulating that people immediately wanted to engage with it. Some igniting questions are big and expansive, like the one BP CEO John Browne asked of his people: “How can we, an oil company, become a force for good?”

Igniting visions
Igniting questions invite people to think about the future; the questions essentially propel them into the unknown. However, there is another type of igniting purpose: an igniting vision. Rather than propelling people into an unknown future, this purpose creates an image of what the future could be. Here energy is released by creating a context within which people can collectively imagine what it is they are working toward.

Igniting tasks
For some Hot Spots, the latent energy is released by an igniting task that is so interesting, challenging, and potentially developmental that people flock to it spontaneously. At BT, the opportunity to get involved with a task that brought the community and customers into the company was so interesting that over seven hundred people flocked to it. Igniting tasks are intrinsically motivating; people love working on them.

4. Productive Capacity

The challenge is that many companies have often unwittingly created an environment where competition and self-interest negate a mindset of cooperation. Where “turf wars” destroy the possibilities of working across boundaries. Where dry, tired speech rather than igniting questions is the common parlance, and where a lackadaisical attitude smothers the energy and questioning that might trigger a Hot Spot.

The good news is that much of this can be changed. You can craft a context that favours cooperation rather than competition. You can actively build and support networks of relationships that crisscross the boundaries of the company. You can create the will and the freedom to ask igniting questions. These elements are marvellous creators of energy. However, to focus this energy and ensure that it actually adds value, you need the fourth and final element, productive capacity.

In the early phases of productive Hot Spots, there is a real emphasis on working on relationships - appreciating the talents of others, learning to make and keep commitments, and resolving conflicts. As the Hot Spot progresses, the type of productive challenge that members face subtly shifts. Whereas previously it was about the relationships between members, it now shifts to members’ relationships to time and rhythm. Hot Spots whose members fail to make this shift in timing and rhythm burn themselves out as the pace of work accelerates. They also become less creative as their time for reflection is overwhelmed by the growing pace of demands. Without these productive practices, the complexity of Hot Spots can be overwhelming, and the energy in the Hot Spot dissipates because it is not being focused productively.

About Lynda Gratton

Lynda Gratton (lgratton@london.edu) is professor of management practice at London Business School. Her latest book is Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces and Organizations Buzz with Energy – And Others Don’t (published by Berrett-Koehler in North America and Financial Times/Prentice Hall in the UK). Her previous bestsellers were Living Strategy: Putting People at the
Heart of Corporate Purpose (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2000) and The Democratic Enterprise: Liberating Your Business with Freedom, Flexibility, and Commitment (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2004). In 2005, Gratton was named by The (London) Times as one of world’s top fifty business thinkers and was rank 100 Most Influential poll. In 2004, Gratton was appointed a senior fellow of the UK’s Advanced Institute of Management Research and in 2006 as director of the Lehman Centre for Women in Business at London Business School. Her website can be visited at www.lyndagratton.com. Visit www.hotspotsmovement.com for further information about the Hot Spots Movement. Visitors to the website can register to become a Member of the Hot Spots Movement. Members receive regular updates about the Movement’s activities. Should you have any questions, please do e-mail enquiries@hotspotsmovement.com.

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